February 18, 2008
Well, this is Awkward...
Kosovo has declared independence.
Ummm....good for them.
The US has immediately and enthusiastically recognized this development. This seems ill considered to me.
I was against it when Clinton meddled in that powder keg and I'm against this now. There are a couple of implications here....most of them are bad.
The current government of Kosovo is not exactly an innocent party either. Although Clinton went to war ostensibly to protect Kosovar Albanians from oppression by Serbs the only mass graves in Kosovo found thus far have contained dead Serbs. (there were reportedly Serb atrocities elsewhere) The demography of the area did not shift benignly.
In the utterly lunatic scenario that we might want to take SIDES in a conflict in the Balkans...which is the border between Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Islam...we might give consideration to not taking the side of the aggressors.
We did not need to jump to recognize Kosovo so suddenly. If it maintains its independence then it is a fait acompli and recognition will come, but to be one of the first to support this terrible humiliation of the Serbs is to rub salt in the wounds that Clinton opened with Russia.
This is, of course, only one of the reasons that Russia....which ought to be our ally right now given our common issues with Islamic extremist nutjobs has become so antiwestern over the last decade....but it is a big one.
WW1 started over less.
Then there is the little matter of precedent.
Kosovo is breaking away from the rest of Serbia due to the fact that Albanians (muslims) have been streaming across a porous border and squatting in Serb territory. I would argue that we might not want to publicly support the right of a region that undergoes ethnic demographic shift to secede....no really.
Let's see....piss off Russia: check
Set pretty dangerous precedent regards our own challenges: check
Further insinuate into rather than extricate ourselves from one of the bloodiest most effed up strife-torn regions of Europe with no prospect whatsoever for a lessening in tensions. : check
OK Now for the good points.
...
Feel free to add any in the comments...all I got is crickets.
More thoughts here and here.
Comments are disabled.
Post is locked.
Ummm....good for them.
The US has immediately and enthusiastically recognized this development. This seems ill considered to me.
I was against it when Clinton meddled in that powder keg and I'm against this now. There are a couple of implications here....most of them are bad.
The current government of Kosovo is not exactly an innocent party either. Although Clinton went to war ostensibly to protect Kosovar Albanians from oppression by Serbs the only mass graves in Kosovo found thus far have contained dead Serbs. (there were reportedly Serb atrocities elsewhere) The demography of the area did not shift benignly.
In the utterly lunatic scenario that we might want to take SIDES in a conflict in the Balkans...which is the border between Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Islam...we might give consideration to not taking the side of the aggressors.
We did not need to jump to recognize Kosovo so suddenly. If it maintains its independence then it is a fait acompli and recognition will come, but to be one of the first to support this terrible humiliation of the Serbs is to rub salt in the wounds that Clinton opened with Russia.
This is, of course, only one of the reasons that Russia....which ought to be our ally right now given our common issues with Islamic extremist nutjobs has become so antiwestern over the last decade....but it is a big one.
WW1 started over less.
Then there is the little matter of precedent.
Kosovo is breaking away from the rest of Serbia due to the fact that Albanians (muslims) have been streaming across a porous border and squatting in Serb territory. I would argue that we might not want to publicly support the right of a region that undergoes ethnic demographic shift to secede....no really.
Let's see....piss off Russia: check
Set pretty dangerous precedent regards our own challenges: check
Further insinuate into rather than extricate ourselves from one of the bloodiest most effed up strife-torn regions of Europe with no prospect whatsoever for a lessening in tensions. : check
OK Now for the good points.
...
Feel free to add any in the comments...all I got is crickets.
More thoughts here and here.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
11:49 PM
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Good parts? How about this: Send a message to China about what could happen WRT Taiwan if the Chinese act stupid.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Feb 19 02:35:15 2008 (+rSRq)
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